Catholic Diocese of Springfield names 14 churches to be closed by year's end

The Republican photo by MICHAEL S. GORDONThe Rev. Dariusz Wudarski, right, talks to parishioners after Saturday afternoon Mass at Immaculate Conception Church, and the announcement that the Springfield Diocese plans to close the church in Indian Orchard.

Waves of shock, anger and resignation rippled across the region's Roman Catholic community Saturday, as announcements of widespread parish closings were delivered at afternoon Masses.

Following a four-year analysis and a 108-page report issued by the Diocesan Pastoral Planning Committee, 14 churches will be shuttered by year's end, with cities like Chicopee and Northampton being hardest hit. Additional closings are forthcoming later through parish mergers.

Single-parish suburbs and those deemed "budding communities" such as Belchertown and Ware went unscathed.

At Immaculate Conception in the Indian Orchard section of Springfield, some parishioners wept after the Rev. Dariusz Wudarski broke the news of that church's slated closure, more than a century after it was built.

The Republican photo by MICHAEL S. GORDONImmaculate Conception parish council member Phyllis Grondalski, of Wilbraham, was surprised by the news that her church is scheduled to close.

"We came here thinking everything was going to be fine," Phyllis Grondalski, a longtime parishioner said tearfully after a 4 p.m. service at the Parker Street parish.

Members there were particularly angry because they just last year spent $400,000 on a renovation and installation of an elevator for the elderly - plus more on an upgrade to the rectory and church hall.

Wudarski addressed his flock after a routine 30-minute Mass. Then, he neatly packed up his Holy Communion supplies and snapped open his briefcase to distribute copies of notification letters from the diocese.

He contends the church ended up on the chopping block despite an explicit promise by the diocese that it would remain open.

"This stinks. It stinks like 300 skunks," he said after the service.

Wudarski was transferred to Immaculate Conception in 2008 after being displaced by two prior mergers.

Msgr. John J. Bonzagni, director of pastoral planning for the diocese, said he previously indicated to Wudarski that he believed Immaculate Conception would remain open. But, the landscape changed as the analysis continued.

"The committee hadn't even talked about Springfield yet, and that's where I should have left the conversation," Bonzagni said.

Parishioners gathered around after the Mass to echo the priest's frustration.

"We drive 58 miles round-trip to come to this church," said Janet A. Mazzie, of Enfield. "This is a shock."

The Republican photo by MICHAEL S. GORDONJanet A. Mazzie, of Enfield, voiced surprise after hearing the announcement of the pending closing of Immaculate Conception Church in Indian Orchard, where she is a longtime parishioner.

Two other parishes in Springfield - Our Lady of Hope and Holy Family - are scheduled to close by the end of the year.

Elsewhere, Chicopee will lose five (Assumption, Nativity, St. Mary's, St. George, St. Patrick) of its 10 Catholic churches. Three parishes in Northampton will close with a fourth reduced to a chapel.

Leaders in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, which covers the four western counties, Thursday signaled the end was near for certain churches but waited to release details until this weekend's services.

The Most Rev. Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell addressed reporters during a briefing Thursday, acknowledging there would most certainly be anguish among longtime congregants of some of the region's oldest churches that will soon close their doors.

"When they see the church closing - that hurts. That hurts. There is going to be hurt," McDonnell said, attributing the effort to plummeting numbers of Catholics over the past 50 years. "But we are a pilgrim people ... We're asking them to move maybe across the city, maybe across city lines, maybe to another parish."

In Chicopee, parishioners of St. Patrick's Church on Broadway Street let out a low moan when the Rev. Richard M. Turner notified them of the pending closure.

Joan F. Courtney, a parishioner for over 50 years, called the decision a miscarriage of justice.

"What's the matter with the bishop?" she said. "We love this church."

St. Patrick's has been directed to close by the first Sunday of Advent, Nov. 29.

McDonnell met with parish priests this week, delivering personal letters to each, to be read at more than 50 churches in Hampden and Hampshire counties.

While more than a dozen parishes will close by the end of the year, Holyoke, South Hadley, Easthampton and Hatfield will have three months to two years to consolidate parishes in those communities.

"Holyoke took up most of our air time," Bonzagni told reporters Thursday.

Details of the closures and extensive comments on the process offered to the press were embargoed until 7:05 p.m. Saturday, when McDonnell delivered the news in a televised address on "Real to Reel," on Channel 22.

Holyoke will have two years to merge certain parishes.

"The situation in Holyoke is in a state of flux," Bonzagni said.

Holy Cross parish will "link" with Mater Dolorosa, a Polish church with a 103-year-old school and staffed by Franciscan order priests. Our Lady of Guadalupe will link, or share a pastor, with St. Jerome's, the city's first Catholic church.

Mergers under one roof are expected, Bonzagni said.

The Blessed Sacrament and Immaculate Conception parishes will remain as stand-alone churches.

Bonzagni said members of Holyoke's Catholic "listening groups" told the planning committee they had "suffered enough." That city has seen five previous church closures, the relocation of Holyoke Catholic High School to Chicopee and the 1999 fire that ravaged Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Diocesan officials were careful to say that decision were based primarily on geography and equity - not on the financial health of certain parishes, nor on the economic impact of multimillion-dollar civil settlements won by scores of clergy abuse victims.

Indeed, Our Lady of Hope in Springfield is targeted for closure despite selling off its former school for $1.3 million to a developer.

Two churches in the Palmer villages of Three Rivers and Bondsville are slated to be closed.

One church in Ludlow will go dark.

Little louder than a whisper, a woman in the back of St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Ludlow uttered "wow" on Saturday afternoon, as the Rev. John E. Connors read a letter announcing the parish will merge with nearby St. John the Baptist.

Connors' voice was thick with emotion, and he had to stop speaking for a moment before he began reading the letter near the end of the service.

"I must say that I was surprised," Connors told the congregation. "I'm sure most of you must be stunned."

The latest surge of closings will follow the shuttering of 10 parishes in Franklin, Berkshire and western Hampden counties Jan. 1.

"We realize this round is going to be much, much bigger," McDonnell said.

Diocesan spokesman Mark E. Dupont said there are 101 parishes in Western Massachusetts and an estimated 220,000 Catholics. There were three times that 50 years ago, according to officials.

Bonzagni said proceeds from any property sales will go to the parish that absorbed the defunct church, unless that parish is in debt to the diocese.

"We're a creditor like anyone else," he said, adding that just six parishes across the region have not had a deficit year since 2000.